


How Are You Feeling About Your Relationship With Robert?

by ItFeelsLikeHome



Series: Aaron's Counselling Sessions [1]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Anxiety, Counselling, Domestic Fluff, M/M, Romance, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-26
Updated: 2017-05-02
Packaged: 2018-10-24 08:27:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10737918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ItFeelsLikeHome/pseuds/ItFeelsLikeHome
Summary: Aaron goes to his counselling session without Robert.  While he struggles to speak about his feelings, his counsellor notices Aaron playing with his ring.  This is what happened next...





	1. The Problem

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Elphie1989 for her help in the research of counselling and the sort of questions that might be asked. I have also used my limited experience of counselling. So Disclaimer: If this work of fiction doesn't sound completely like a counselling session, I do apologise.

Rotating the silver band around his finger, Aaron inhaled a deep breath until he couldn’t inhale anymore. It didn’t calm his anxiety, so he let his eyes wander around the room. His eyes focused on the nonthreatening and rather clinical white walls, the wooden table in the centre and the open blinds covering the windows until they rested on his counsellor. Her smile was warm and welcoming, ready to listen to him for a whole hour. It seemed like too long to talk about himself. He hated when his mum nagged him, or was even more annoying and wanted him to talk about his feelings, and it felt like she was pecking his head in. In those instances he’d give her a look of disdain and find the nearest exist. However, he couldn’t escape now, especially when he had promised Robert that he would go to counselling. He couldn’t let him down. Working through his problems would make Robert happy but, ultimately, it would stop his own insecurities. Or so he was hoping. 

He gathered another deep breath and bit his top lip. How did he start this again? Just say the first thing that popped up in his head? Or maybe she would ask him a question to start the ball rolling. 

As if she could read his thoughts, she asked him, ‘How are you feeling about being at counselling?’

He shrugged his shoulders and scrunched his nose up. ‘I dunno. It’s weird, I suppose.’ As the words left his mouth, his eyes inspected his fingers and he started picking at the skin around his knuckles. 

‘What makes you think that?’

‘Just talking about my feelings ain’t really my thing.’ He looked up from his fingers to see her unwavering gaze. 

This was going to be difficult - claustrophobic - like being locked up in Cain’s car banging and demanding to get out. The only difference was that Robert wasn’t there with a big grin on his face to brighten up Aaron’s mood or make him smile. His right fingers instinctively went to his silver band and clenched and twisted it around his finger. It had always been way too big, but he didn’t want to be without it. Those weeks where he didn’t have it, didn’t have Robert, were unbearable. He wished he had Robert by his side now, but he knew he had to do this part on his own. 

For a few moments nothing was said. The silence lay heavy in the air and the expectation that he had to say something was a bit restrictive as though he was Harry Houdini in a straight jacket and this was his final - yet fatal - stunt. He twisted his lips to the right hand side of his face and took another deep breath. This must get easier. It had to. He wanted to work through his insecurities and not be a threat to Robert. He still shuddered to think that he had actually punched him when he came out of his panic attack. 

‘I notice that you play with the ring a lot. How are you feeling about your relationship with Robert?’

The very sound of his husband’s name and the way she said those syllables made him smile. Just like the memory of Robert fitting his arms around Aaron that morning. Aaron had been putting some bread in the toaster when Robert had swooped down, wrapped his arms around his waist and drawn Aaron into his body. He loved the feel of Robert’s arms around him, loved the look of his biceps whenever he occasionally wore his black zip-up top or that blue top that seemed to cling to his arms in all the right places. 

‘I’m happy.’ He paused and thought very carefully about the words that he wanted to say. The words he chose really needed to do his feelings for Robert justice. ‘I’ve never had a relationship like this before. I can’t believe that I have it with Robert.’ 

His mind rewound to that morning, in their bed, and the ways that Robert had shown just how much he loved Aaron. They had got hot and sweaty, and Charity had knocked on the door - well actually banged was probably the more appropriate word - demanding that they quieten down and that nobody in the whole of Emmerdale wanted to hear about how amazing their sex life was. ‘She’s only jealous she’s not getting any,’ Robert had said in their brief pause, which had made Aaron laugh despite himself, but it hadn’t really dampened their mood. As soon as they had heard her bedroom door close, they had continued until they were both spent and sated. Well, until the next time that morning when Robert had an itch that needed scratching. 

‘I’m picking up that Robert makes you very happy,’ the counsellor had said. 

Aaron nearly blushed as he was yanked out of his x-rated thoughts about their morning session of delight and brought back down to earth. He struggled for words at first. ‘Yes. He does make me happy. He’s like my best mate and the love of my life. It sounds mad, but it isn’t.’ He shook his head still not really believing how lucky he was to actually have found Robert and have him in his life. ‘He knows what to say when it really matters. He’s there for me.’

There were a few moments of silence, as his words rolled around in the ether before his counsellor spoke again. ‘I’m picking up that Robert is a very supportive husband. How would you describe him towards you?’

Aaron nodded. ‘He is supportive. He’s been there through some difficult situations. He’s saved my life a few times, too. But I know that he loves me.’ Aaron’s mind went back to their wedding day and how he was filled with so much pride and love for Robert that he thought he would burst. ‘I never would have called him romantic cos he never seemed big on the romantic gestures, but, I mean, he organised our surprise wedding. He organised a surprise trip to Las Vegas for my birthday. He proposed.’

Silence again. It was uncomfortable. He hoped she would say something soon. 

‘I sense that Robert does grand gestures. How does that make you feel?’ 

He bit the right hand side of his gum and tapped his fingers together, while he really contemplated that question. ‘Gutted that I haven’t done anything to show him what he means to me. What do you think I should do to show him that I love him?’

‘I can’t tell you what to do. But perhaps write a list down of all the ways you could show him what he means to you and decide from there.’

Aaron nodded. He could do that.


	2. The Solution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robert's lost his ring. He's worried about Aaron's reaction, but Aaron doesn't seem bothered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the second part of the counselling fic. I hope you like it.

Panic tightened its cold, hard clench on his stomach. He ached for it to be there. But where else could it be? However, with every pot and pan and kitchen utensil that he removed and put on any available work surface, or even the kitchen table, it was getting more and more unlikely. 

Robert inspected the time on his phone and wondered whether he’d be able to search through the whole of the kitchen again before Aaron came home from his trip to Newcastle. Aaron and Adam had set off for Newcastle early that morning, so it meant that they would be coming back after seven. It was 19:05 now. 

He pictured Aaron's pursed lips and raised eyebrows and how the truth might sound to him. He didn't want to have Aaron doubt him, but Robert knew how suspicious it sounded. Robert was distraught at losing his wedding ring: it showed his commitment to Aaron, the fact that nobody else came close to how he felt about Aaron. He had been in love before, but this was in a different stratosphere. It was like every other relationship he had been in was a performance. He had been playing a role where he had ad libbed and lied his way through each scene that was thrown his way because he didn’t really know how he was meant to behave. The role of ‘Jack’s son’ was always difficult to play. However, he didn’t need a script; he didn’t need to ad lib. He was free to be himself with Aaron, to love him the way that he wanted to. That was why his relationship with Aaron was liberating. Aaron loved him for who he was, not what he pretended to be. 

Robert looked directly in front of him trying to visualise where it could be. He’d taken off the ring that morning. It all seemed like such a blaze of flurry now, but he was sure it had been placed here next to the soap dish and near the hot tap faucet. 

His mind rewound to earlier that day... 

Victoria had interrupted him by entering the back room. ‘Well, dearest brother of mine, light of my life, how are you doing today?’

‘What is it that you want?’ He turned his attention from one of Aaron’s car magazines as he was sat on the settee, to his sister, giving her a side glance but not getting up to greet her. He wanted to make her work for this, whatever it was she wanted him to do. 

‘Can’t I say how amazing you are?’ She gained ground towards him until finally she sat on the coffee table in front of him. 

‘You can, and we both know it is true, but you don’t usually tell me.’

‘What are you up to today?’

‘What do you want?’

‘Robert, can you fix my car?’ She gave him her sweetest smile, full teeth on display, as she tried to look as angelical as an angel perched on top of a Christmas tree. 

‘Can’t you take it to the garage?’ He'd spent the morning chasing Home James contacts, and after having an early morning meeting in Pickering, he was quite frankly shattered. 

‘Why do I need to take it to the garage when my wonderful brother used to be a mechanic?’

‘I’m a bit rusty.’

‘You weren’t last year. You really helped me out there.’

With another look at her, Robert realised that he would have to concede. When Victoria had her mind set on something, there was no swaying her. He stood up, and she looked up at him eyes expectant and ready to pounce with another reason he should help out his sister. 

‘What? Are you not going to come with me, so you can show me what is wrong?’

‘Yeah! But I’m just concerned about your ring. Aren’t you going to take it off?’ She looked down at the silver band covering his ring finger, as a furrow escaped between her eyebrows.

He followed her gaze to his wedding ring. It had never come off his finger since the happiest day of his life. He raised his eyebrows at her. ‘I don’t usually.’

‘You might get it caught in the car, while you’re trying to fix it. I once watched a programme where this man got his wedding ring caught in a car and they had to cut open the ring to get his finger out. Nasty sight it was as well. It was either that or cutting the man’s finger off.’

So that’s how he ended up taking it off. The problem with Victoria’s car was quite easy to sort out, and, if he had been honest with himself, there would have been no reason he would have got his ring stuck, but he was glad he had taken it off for safe keeping. The very idea of losing the ring, or breaking it, or even tarnishing it, was something that he never wanted to think about. Then he’d taken Victoria up on a pint in the Woolie before she had to go to her dentist appointment. 

The only problem was that an hour later the ring had disappeared, which is why he had resulted in taking everything out of its place in the kitchen and the back room just to see whether he could find it. 

‘You know if Mum was at home right now instead of in Mauritius, I’m sure she’d have hell to pay for you leaving the kitchen and back room in a mess.’

Aaron. 

‘This isn’t going to be a habit when we eventually move into The Mill, is it?’ 

He got up from his knelt position near the open kitchen cupboard, stepping over pots and pans as though he was gingerly stepping through areas that had the potential to be landmines. 

‘I’ve lost my wedding ring. I took it off earlier when Vic asked me to take a look at her car, but I can’t find it anywhere.’

Aaron’s left eyebrow arched slightly - a trait that Robert found sexy and alluring but also quite frustrating in equal measure. ‘Really?’ 

While the arch of the left eyebrow was part of Aaron’s sexy tough man routine, where his face was deadpan and didn’t crack into a smile, it could also be used whenever he was incredulous to what he was being told. And Robert wondered whether it was the former or the latter reason why he was using the arch now. 

‘Yeah. I’ve searched the whole of these two rooms and I can’t find it.’ Robert went back to the kitchen sink, hoping that it hadn’t fallen in the sink either. Perhaps Charity had found it. Perhaps even Noah. ‘It must be somewhere in the room.’

‘Don’t worry about it. I’m sure it will turn up.’ The words were matched with a genuine smile, and just seeing Aaron smile and realising that it was all for him made his knees weak and his stomach tumble into a somersault. 

Robert had expected Aaron to be mad, possibly not even believing him, but his husband had sidled up to him, in the coy way he had perfected, placing his hands around his arms and pulled him in for a kiss. Like he always did when he kissed Aaron, he let out a moan of pleasure. His husband always knew the effect he had on him and how one kiss could never really stay as one kiss. He kissed him long and deep, as their mouths opened and Robert's tongue couldn't help but fondle Aaron's. 

'Charity?' Robert moaned as Aaron's lips continued to graze his and their kissing had picked up momentum and passion. ‘When’s Charity back?’ he moaned, this time pulling away from Aaron meaning that he wanted a response. Their lips parted, and Robert realised that the brief seconds that his lips weren't touching Aaron's were simply too much for him to handle. He hoped that Aaron would answer his question soon. Their lips remained inches away from each other, while Robert tried to deny the pull that he now had towards Aaron's perfect, delectable lips. Robert breathed in Aaron’s scent from the ‘cheap tat’ shower gel that he constantly used. He wound Aaron up something rotten about it, but it was one of those things that made Aaron even more delicious to him. 

‘Not for hours, I think. What do you have in mind?’ Aaron pulled away a bit further, and Robert felt bereft that the contact was disappearing, that it might be completely gone soon. But with one look at the big smile on his husband’s face, and that sexy twinkle in his eye, Robert knew exactly what was on his mind. 

‘Perhaps I could make it up to you. You know, since I lost my wedding ring, and all that.’

Aaron took him by the hand and led him up to their room. They took the stairs two at time, hurrying until they got there. 

*** ***

Robert was tired and all he really fancied was a hot shower, a beer and snuggling up to Aaron as they watched something rubbish on television: one of those mindless programmes that didn’t require a lot of concentration or thinking just so they could fall asleep in front of the television spooning. 

He’d gone through the pub hoping that Aaron was in there having a pint. Perhaps they could get a fish and chip tea before the snuggling commenced? He had grabbed a quick sandwich earlier, but that was about five hours ago, and he really needed something to fill the hole in his ravenous stomach. 

Instead, he was commandeered by his sister, yet again. 

‘Rob, here.’ 

His aim was to go straight to the back room, but at her words he veered off course to where his sister and Adam were sat at the bar. ‘Fancy joining us for another drink?’

‘Yeah, mate. Thanks for helping Vic out yesterday. Really appreciate it,’ Adam said patting him on the shoulder. 

And before he knew it, Adam had pushed a pint in his direction. 

‘Thanks,’ Robert said, feeling like a deer caught between the headlights, before drinking it. 

‘Another?’ Adam had asked when he was nearly halfway through it. 

‘No, I’m going to have a shower. Hopefully, Aaron will be in soon.’ When he had a frustrating day dealing with sarcastic haulage drivers, he always imagined him and Aaron snuggling on the settee and somehow it didn’t seem to matter. He was still annoyed and angry, but Robert knew where his priorities lay and what was important to him. 

He went through the bar and opened the door into the back room. 

As Robert opened the door, he was met with a sight that was unusual but made his jaw open. 

It was pitch black apart from numerous votives in glass containers and in candle holders. They were surrounding the kitchen table and on the two sideboards on either side of the room. In the center of the table were two bottles of beers and next to it, wearing Robert’s favourite suit on him - the black one from their wedding day - was Aaron looking all sheepish and adorable. Like an adorable puppy showing off how they can retrieve a ball for the first time, he beamed at Robert. He shook his head towards the table. 

‘Hi,’ Aaron said with the big grin still evident on his face. 

‘Hi,’ Robert uttered still unable to take in the shock. ‘What’s all this about?’

‘It’s for you.’

Robert crossed the room and put his arms around Aaron’s waist, pulling him in, relishing the feel of his husband’s waist and back underneath his touch. ‘It looks like you’re trying to set The Woolpack alight.’

‘I’m trying to be romantic.’

‘That’s a first.’

‘Well, if it’s so easy for you to do then I know anyone can.’

‘I’ll have you know the wedding and the back room masquerading as a casino were quite difficult to plan. It’s not that straight forward, idiot.’

‘Yeah, right?’ Aaron’s arched eyebrow made a show again.

‘I don’t think you realise what your arched eyebrow does to me.’

‘Perhaps we should find out.’ He continued arching that left eyebrow and Robert grabbed him by the neck until their lips collided, hungry for each other, devouring each delicious kiss as one hurried kiss turned into another and another. 

There was a knock on the door, and then it opened. ‘Aaron, I’ve got your meals ready.’

Robert moved away from Aaron, and his eyes refused to meet Marlon as he came over to the table with two hot plates of food. He’d forgotten how hungry he was; however, now with the mouth-watering aroma the steak pie, chips and peas were emanating, he couldn’t deny his hunger any more. 

‘Thanks, Marlon,’ Aaron said before returning to Robert. 

‘You ordered my favourite. Are you on a promise, or something?’

‘Or something.’

They both sat down and were about to tuck into their meal, when Robert spied something shiny and circular next to his fork. ‘Where did you find this?’ He picked it up and placed it back on his finger. His body relaxed as the silver band touched his once bare skin. 

‘Not exactly.’ Aaron’s hands went to Robert’s left hand and took the ring off his finger. He then took off the ring on his own finger. ‘Have a look at them both.’

He studied them both hard. On the ring that had been on Aaron’s finger it said: 

You Know  
21-02-2017

On the ring that had been on his own finger it said: 

I Know  
21-02-2017

‘So, Victoria coming round yesterday was all part of the plan to get my ring off my finger?’ He raised his eyebrows to Aaron, who was still smiling - in fact beaming - at him. 

‘Possibly. I knew there would be no way you would take it off voluntarily.’

‘You, Aaron, a grand master schemer.’

‘Well, I learnt from the best. And they don’t call me Dingle for no reason.’

Robert grabbed Aaron’s neck again, pulling him in, holding on to his husband’s ears - another favourite body part of his. ‘I love you.’

‘I love you.’


End file.
